Macedonian phonology
This article discusses the phonological system of Standard Macedonian (unless otherwise noted) based on the Prilep-Bitola dialect. For discussion of other dialects, see Macedonian dialects. Macedonian possesses five vowels, one semivowel, three liquid consonants, three nasal stops, three pairs of fricatives, two pairs of affricates, a non-paired voiceless fricative, nine pairs of voiced and unvoiced consonants and four pairs of stops. Vowels Schwa The schwa is phonemic in many dialects (varying in closeness to or ) but its use in the standard language is marginal. When writing a dialectal word and keeping the schwa for aesthetic effect, an apostrophe is used; for example, , , etc. When spelling aloud, each consonant is followed by the schwa. The individual letters of acronyms are pronounced with the schwa in the same way: ( ). The lexicalized acronyms ( ) and ( ) (a brand of cigarettes), are among the few exceptions. Vowel length Vowel length is not phonemic. Vowels in stressed open syllables in disyllablic words with stress on the penult can be realized as long, e.g. 'Veles'. The sequence is often realized phonetically as ; e.g. 'colloq. hour'. Consonants Depending on dialect, and may be alveolo-palatal affricates ( , ( ) as in some of the Northern Macedonian dialects while in the urban Prilep subdialect of the Prilep-Bitola dialect, they have merged to and , respectively. Neither nor recognize the existence of a palatalised ( ) or palatal ( ) lateral in Standard Macedonian. This is in contrast with the surrounding related languages (Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian). However, a cluster does occur (spelled ) which in rapid speech can coalesce. Both of these scholars also assert that there is a phonemic contrast between the velarised lateral and the nonvelarised . While they admit that and occur mainly before front and non-front vowels, respectively (where they are both written ), they state that, at least in the prescribed norm or in some words, may also occur before non-front vowels (where it is written ). Hence minimal pairs like (adj. fem. sg. 'white') versus (n. fem. sg. 'trouble') express this phonemic contrast. The alveolar trill ( ) is syllabic between two consonants; for example, 'finger'. The dental nasal ( ) and dental lateral ( ) are also syllabic in certain foreign words; e.g. 'newton', 'Popocatépetl', etc. The labiodental nasal occurs as an allophone of before and (e.g. 'tram'). The velar nasal similarly occur as an allophone of before and (e.g. 'English'). The latter realization is avoided by some speakers who enunciate. The velar fricative /x/ does not occur natively in the language. It has been introduced or retained in Standard Macedonian under the following circumstances: (1) new foreign words: 'hotel', (2) toponyms: Ohrid, (3) Church Slavonicisms: 'spirit', (4) new literary words: 'income', and (5) to disambiguate between potential homophones: 'food' vs. 'injury, wound'. Phonological processes At morpheme boundaries (represented in spelling) and at the end of a word (not represented in spelling), voicing opposition is neutralized. Stress The word stress in Macedonian is antepenultimate, meaning it falls on the third from last syllable in words with three or more syllables, and on the first or only syllable in other words. This is sometimes disregarded when the word has entered the language more recently or from a foreign source. The following rules apply: * Disyllabic words are stressed on the second-to-last syllable. For example, 'child', 'mother' and 'father'. * Trisyllabic and polysyllabic words are stressed on the third-to-last syllable. For example, 'mountain', 'the mountain' and 'the mountaineers'. Exceptions include: * Verbal adverbs: e.g. 'shouting', 'walking'. * Foreign loanwords: e.g. 'cliché', 'genesis', 'literature', , 'Alexander', etc. References Bibliography * * * * Category:Language phonologies Category:Macedonian language